Croagunk Line/DPPt
Croagunk can be found in the Great Marsh as one of the Daily Binocular Pokemon, meaning they are not set to a specific area. In Platinum only, they can also be found in Route 212's southern (rainy marsh) sectionshoul as a standard wild encounter. In addition, Toxicroak can also be found in the Great Marsh as a Daily Binocular Pokemon as well. WIP Important Matchups - Platinum = * Gym #4 - Maylene (Veilstone City, Fighting-type): Do not fight Meditite. Machoke's Strength is more dangerous than Karate Chop without crits, being able to 3HKO while the latter manages a 5HKO at equal level of 29. Croagunk will be able to 3HKO with either Revenge or Focus Blast at Level 29, it's best moves at the time. If Lucario's Bone Rush manages at least 3 hits, Croagunk is dead. Machoke is generally the only one Croagunk can 'safely' fight. * Rival (Pastoria City): * Gym #5 - Crasher Wake (Pastoria City, Water-type): You should avoid this battle completely: Gyarados and Floatzel have high attack, making a crit a possible OHKO, while Quagsire is bulky and can cripple Ambipom via Yawn and Rock Tomb's Speed reduction. * Cyrus (Celestic Town): * Rival (Canalave City): * Gym #6 - Byron (Canalave City, Steel-type): Despite access to Dig/Brick Break's TM and Fire Punch via Move Tutor, everything has high Defense and STAB moves that hit hard: Thunderbolt/Flash Cannon for Magneton, Earthquake for Steelix, Stone Edge for Bastiodon. You could use Dig against Magneton, but let a bulkier teammate deal with the other two. * Saturn (Lake Valor): * Mars (Lake Verity): * Gym #7 - Candice (Snowpoint City, Ice-type): You can deal with Sneasel with Fire Punch/U-Turn/Brick Break, avoiding Piloswine and Abomasnow because bulk and STAB moves. Froslass is a decent matchup, as long as the field is devoid of Hail; be careful of Psychic's Special Defense drop and STAB Blizzard, then proceed to spam Fire Punch or Shadow Claw. * Cyrus (Galactic HQ): * Saturn (Galactic HQ): * Mars and Jupiter (Spear Pillar, tag battle with rival): * Cyrus (Distortion World): * Giratina (Distortion World): * Gym #8 - Volkner (Sunyshore City, Electric-type): Jolteon can be taken out with Dig, but you should switch in case Charge Beam's Special Attack's raises start piling up. The rest has high offensive stats, so don't even bother with them, but you could U-Turn as parting gift, maybe even baiting them in using a NVE move against your switch (just be careful of Raichu, it might outspeed depending on your Speed stat. You don't want Ambipom to eat a Focus Miss). * Rival (Pokémon League): * Elite Four Aaron (Pokémon League, Bug-type): * Elite Four Bertha (Pokémon League, Ground-type): * Elite Four Flint (Pokémon League, Fire-type): * Elite Four Lucian (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): * Champion Cynthia (Pokémon League): * Post-Game: }} Moves The lowest-leveled wild Croagunk will start with Poison Sting, Taunt, Pursuit, and Faint Attack. Poison Sting is pitiful as STAB, but you'll have to make the best of it. Taunt may not be that beneficial as most of the NPC Trainers won't rely on status moves, even if annoying. Faint Attack is better than Pursuit due to how little the NPC relies on switching, also it never misses. Revenge at level 22 works if you know Croagunk is going to be attacked, and can survive it. It is generally a better choice than Rock Smash. Swagger '''at level 24 is a rather high-risk move, but can be used to annoy those who don't primarily rely on physical attacks. level 29 brings '''Mud Bomb, a move that is generally not worth it in the long run. Good to deal with Fire and Electric-types in the meantime. Sucker Punch '''at level 31 can be used over Faint Attack if the player has good predicting skills, and can get the first hit on pesky Psychic-types. '''Nasty Plot '''at level 36 turns it into a Special Attack sweeper, but remember that the Croagunk line is awfully frail. Hopefully a Toxicroak now, the next move is '''Poison Jab '''at level 41. This will be the best physical Poison STAB that the line gets, so keep it. Special variants can enjoy '''Sludge Bomb '''at level 49. '''Flatter '''arrives at level 54, though it honestly wastes a precious spot that could be given to an attacking move. On the TM side of things, Toxicroak is rather versatile. '''Focus Punch '''really only works if the player is lucky with Swagger/Flatter or has Subsitute up, it is still a risky option regardless. '''Toxic '''gives Toxicroak more utility. Dry Skin variants will love '''Rain Dance '''up, but that may be best left to another teammate. '''Earthquake '''takes care of annoying Fire and Electric-type Pokemon, although '''Dig '''is another suitable option. '''Shadow Ball '''is perfect for Special variants, hitting Psychic-types hard. '''Brick Break '''helps patch the line's lack of good Fighting STAB, it is the strongest physical Fighting STAB sans Focus Punch that it gets. '''Rock Tomb '''swats away Flying-types, and helps Toxicroak gain more advantage in speed. '''Torment '''shuts down opposing Pokemon from using the same move twice, which can help Toxicroak with strong moves only if it can live the first hit. '''Focus Blast '''is Toxicroak's strongest special Fighting STAB, but is generally inaccurate. '''Payback '''is a Dark-type Revenge, but generally useless without the STAB. '''Stone Edge '''and '''Rock Slide '''hit harder than Rock Tomb, the latter is slightly more accurate too. '''Swords Dance '''helps Toxicroak boost its physical attack similar to Nasty Plot. '''X-Scissor '''does hit Psychic-types, but it doesn't have much coverage like the Dark-type moves do. '''Substitute '''should only be used to make Focus Punch work. '''Rock Smash '''may be Toxicroak's best STAB for a while, and that's sad. Regarding Move Tutors, Toxicroak notably has access to '''Thunder Punch '''and '''Ice Punch. Ice Punch is generally more useful, it hits Ground and Flying-types as well as Dragon-types. Vacuum Wave 'is a STAB priority move, allowing Toxicroak to hit first and off its decent Special Attack stat. ''Recommended moveset: * Physical Sweeper: Poison Jab, Brick Break, Sucker Punch/Ice Punch/Swords Dance/Rock Slide/Earthquake. * Special Sweeper: Sludge Bomb, Vacuum Wave, Shadow Ball, Nasty Plot. * Mixed Attacker: Poison Jab, Vacuum Wave, any Special or Physical attacks fill the last two spots. Recommended Teammates To be added Other Croagunk's stats Toxicroak's stats * 'What Nature do I want? ' * '''What Ability do I want? '''Anticipation is rather useless compared to Dry Skin, which gives Croagunk and Toxicroak a form of immunity and recovery at the same time. * '''At what point in the game should I be evolved? '''In DP, Croagunk should be evolved around the time the player has defeated Fantina. In Platinum, the player should at least be finished with Crasher Wake instead. * '''How good is the Croagunk line in a Nuzlocke? * Weaknesses: * Resistances: * Immunities: * Neutralities: Category:Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Category:To be reviewed Category:Abandoned Articles